Vincent Valentine
|image = Image:Vincent.jpg |imagewidth = 290 |caption = This is |Row 1 title = Nicknames |Row 1 info = Vin, Vince, Vinny, Valentine, Spooks |Row 2 title = Gender |Row 2 info = Male |Row 3 title = Age |Row 3 info = 60 |Row 4 title = Species |Row 4 info = Variable |Row 5 title = Languages |Row 5 info = Common, limited Wutain |Row 6 title = Room |Row 6 info = 8202 (Deck 5) |Row 7 title = Canon |Row 7 info = Final Fantasy VII |Row 8 title = Journal |Row 8 info = I must confess that I feel like a monster |Row 9 title = Mun |Row 9 info = Nashi }} is a romantically awkward desk worker assassin turned technologically inept broody angstmuffin demigod of anarchy. Some of the time, anyway. He's also a shark. Background About thirty years ago, Vincent was a member of the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company's Administrative Research Division--the company's Black Ops unit, otherwise known as the Turks. At the age of twenty-seven he was assigned to supervise something called the JENOVA Project in a town called Nibelheim, and there he fell in love with one of the supporting scientists, Lucrecia Crescent. Though they were very attached to one another, an unpleasant secret in Lucrecia's past--related to the death of Vincent's father--caused her to withdraw from him and instead pursue a relationship with another scientist, Hojo. Soon after, Lucrecia was discovered to be pregnant, and the fetus was slated to be used as a subject in the project. Vincent seemed to operate under the impression that the child was his, although her relationship with both him and Hojo made the issue of fatherhood rather vague. Vincent objected to the use of humans as test subjects--particularly when those humans were the woman he loved and what might very well have been his own unborn child--but Lucrecia proceeded with the treatment in the interest of science, in spite of Vincent's protests, and became very sick as a result. Outraged, Vincent confronted Hojo in his laboratory, where a heated argument ensued that came to a treacherous conclusion when Vincent's rival in love shot him in the chest. Hojo proceeded to use Vincent's half-dead body as the subject for several experiments, initially for the purpose of strengthening his body's endurance, but eventually phasing over to a metamorphosis project that granted Vincent several powers, including the ability to turn into a series of monsters. However, he remained in an almost vegetative state for the majority of the projects, lingering between life and death until Lucrecia herself stepped in and made an attempt to rehabilitate him with the use of mako--the planet's blood--infused with parts of a monster known as Chaos. Due to Hojo's meddling, Vincent was able to survive the treatment, and was restored to health. He was also transformed into a monster with no apparent way of changing back. Thankfully, Lucrecia was able to introduce something called the Protomateria to Vincent's body, allowing him to regain both his control and his previous form. After this, Hojo had him sealed up in a coffin underneath the mansion where the research team had been staying during the project, and Vincent slept for thirty years. (Not counting a fleeting encounter with his former partner, Veld Dragoon, who found him during a mission. Vincent assisted in the fight, and then sealed himself ''back away and went back to sleep.) Eventually he was discovered by Cloud Strife and his companions, and joined forces with them to take down Hojo, find out what had happened to Lucrecia, and discover the fate of her son, Sephiroth. Vincent then took on a major role in the saving of the world and the defeat of said son, eventually discovering that at least Hojo believed Sephiroth was his child rather than Vincent's. He killed Hojo, helped defeat Sephiroth, and with barely a goodbye went about his way. Since then he's helped to fight off one more Sephiroth-related crisis, but for the most part remains on his own, drifting from place to place and keeping very sparse contact with the people who call themselves his friends. Personality '' '' ::: ''Cloud sometimes thought his relationships were messed up, but Vincent had cornered the market on dysfunctional, and then made a brand name out of unhealthy devotion. ''-- Sinnatious' "The Fifth Act" Dark and brooding over events in his past that he considers to be sins, Vincent is a man of many secrets. He seems very cold, level and collected, but isn't uncaring in spite of his history. He seems to like children, to an extent, having no issue siding with one of them in an argument with Cloud, and even met an accusation that he didn't care about the wellbeing of the planet with confusion. He seems very unemotional, but is in fact an extremely intense individual; he despises Hojo for everything he did, and still loves Lucrecia more than anything else in the world in spite of the fact that she willingly gave up her son to experimentation, and played a part in the revocation of his humanity. Vincent isn't particularly conversational and doesn't really make friends. In fact, he has little care for the wellbeing of others unless the threat reaches a large scale (ie: Meteor) or it effects some of those few people he cares about and/or willingly allies himself with (ie: The events of ''Advent Children). His lack of care for others is due both in part to his current state of being and his past as a glorified assassin in a clean-cut business suit; in his original line of business friendship wasn't really a priority, and in his current condition it isn't particularly safe for those involved. This means that under all the neuroses and killing, Vincent is just a little bit awkward, uncomfortable in social situations, and really has little to no idea what to do with himself around people in general. It doesn't help that he's completely aware of how very inhuman he is now, which gives him more than his fair share of self-loathing issues. He angsts, has a flair for the dramatic, and has been known to wax poetic on rare occasions about all the horrible things he's done. He carries around a very nice set of emotional baggage, so people tend to forgive him for being so undeniably emotastic. Abilities Prior to being experimented on by his rival in love, Vincent was a member of Shin-Ra's Black Ops unit, the Turks. He, with several others, was responsible for doing the company’s dirty work on command, regardless of how dirty the work was, and expected to keep it quiet. As a result, Vincent is highly skilled in the areas of espionage, informational recon, as well as various forms of combat. His primary fighting skills lie in the use of firearms, but he’s also definitely capable of hand-to-hand--his special abilities see to that--as well as the utilization of magic for combat. After being experimented on, these skills were joined with a whole slew of abilities that probably weren’t meant to live in human skin. Due to everything that was done to him, Vincent is immortal--but not ''invulnerable. His cells don’t degrade naturally and he doesn’t have to eat or sleep but he ''can be damaged. He has a very high pain threshold, however, and accelerated healing abilities, so he shouldn't be expected to go down lightly. Added to that, Vincent has superhuman senses, strength and speed, as well as the ability to fly. As if that wasn’t enough, all Vincent’s special abilities stem from his ability to transform into a series of monsters, primarily when under extreme duress. He appears to be capable of doing so at will, but his rampant hatred and disgust toward this particular ability are more than enough to make sure the majority of his inner demons’ appearances take place in battle, when he’s been wounded, or when he’s filled with rage to the point of irrationality. On the Elegante, Vincent has lost the ability to transform into all but one of these monsters, leaving him with only unwilling shifts into Chaos for terrifying superpowers. Chaos, for explanation, is a creature known as a WEAPON, something similar to a demigod, created by the spirit of the planet to help bring about the end of the world. It's the harbinger to Omega, which was designed to take in the Lifestream and transport it to a new world when the old planet died. Obviously to take the Lifestream it has to be more or less complete, so Chaos was designed to go about killing every living thing left on the planet to return their souls to the main channels under the earth, thereby giving Omega the ability to take the entire Lifestream to another world. However, due to the necessity of a relatively pure energy channel, Chaos was also given the ability to strengthen itself by taking in tainted souls, the energy of the wicked. This means Vincent can feel a person's soul, taste it if he gets close enough; as Chaos he can tell just how blackened it is, and probably has a rather powerful inclination to rip it out. Sounds like fun, right? Appearance Vincent is tall, rather slender for a man of his size, and appears to be in his mid-twenties in spite of being almost sixty years old. He has long black hair that he doesn't care to tame, is white as a sheet--probably from being locked underground in a coffin for thirty years--and has bright red eyes that glow in the dark. His facial structure and general coloration hint at possible Wutain heritage, but as his childhood is never detailed this is unclear. Commonly found wearing a tattered red cloak that covers the lower half of his face and a heavy red headband--either based off of or made from a scarf his father wore prior to his death--to keep his hair obscuring the rest, Vincent isn't particularly keen on letting people get a good look at him. (This is more than a little stupid, because by common definition he's drop-dead gorgeous. The likelihood of him believing this is slim to none, however, so there would be little point in trying to explain it to him.) Vincent originally wore a sharp brass gauntlet on his left hand, but this was confiscated upon his arrival on the Elegante due to the ability to use it as a weapon--which Vincent never did. The metal has thus far been used to obscure the disproportion of his left arm, which is permanently transformed into a Chaos-like state; there's still a heavy black glove and long sleeves to keep the claws and eerily ashen blue-white skin concealed, but the shape and size of it make the deformation more than a little obvious. For the most part, he'll keep this arm hidden in his cloak. Relationships Canonmates ' Reno: '''Hardly the proper personality for a Turk, but very good at what he does nevertheless. Vincent spends all their conversations flopping back and forth between liking him and wanting to punt him off the Plate. Although they've had their disputes--one of which led to Reno getting gored half to death by Chaos and left to flee for his life until he all but passed out from blood loss--Reno and Vincent have most certainly reached a level of equilibrium in their relationship that keeps them both comfortable enough around one another. Initially this was due to the fact that they're officially the only two Turks on record who have ever actually died and come back rather than just being declared dead while running away somewhere, but as of the Anniversary Events it's thanks to Redd's enjoyment in switching people's bodies. Vincent has never had a kindred spirit before, but since Reno is now completely, even intimately aware of what it's like to be in Vincent's physiological situation, there's nothing else Vincent could call him. He's...not sure how to deal with this, aside from feeling horrible for Reno having to go through that. ' Veld Dragoon:' Vincent's partner-in-everything from when he was in the Turks, as well as his closest friend before his world went to hell. Vincent cares very deeply for Veld, but because of this he was initially almost terrified of being around him for any extended period of time--he'd much rather Veld was unaware of him and safe somewhere than close enough to be put in constant danger. Veld refused to stand for this treatment, and after a series of unpleasant events, he and Vincent fell back into some old patterns, at least. He's been attacked by Chaos as well, but his ability to fight the WEAPON off rather than simply get gored half to death has gave Vincent a bit of confidence in keeping his company. He's no longer afraid that Veld would hold back if he really lost it, and has little reason left to worry. At the masquerade, the assistance of Vincent's temporary humanization and Redd's pear wine led to them falling back into other old patterns, including but certainly not limited to spending the night together for the first time since before Vincent's departure for Nibelheim. This made things awkward for a while, but thankfully they've evened out since then. It should probably also be mentioned that in spite of the fact that Veld was the one to have dispatched Vincent to Nibelheim to begin with, Vincent has never even thought about blaming him for his current condition. But then, he has been known for absolving guilt from the people that he cares about most in favor of taking it on himself. ' Lucrecia Crescent: RUINS ALL THE THINGS. Vincent adores her and would do almost anything for her, but isn't so much in love with her as he is completely, utterly obsessed. Having her here in the flesh is more than a little disconcerting, and considering she really can't even recognize him anymore, it's rather painful as well. To Vincent, Lucrecia is the culmination of everything he could have done better, testament to all his mistakes, a flawless beacon of eternal punishment that he will never be allowed to get close to again. Since coming to the Elegante Vincent has discovered that it was Lucrecia's experimentation on his body that infused him with Chaos, and as a result his entire opinion of her has come crashing down around his ears; maybe she wasn't an innocent after all. But if she wasn't innocent, then does he still deserve to be punished...? So far Vincent still isn't sure, but he has come to the decision since Lucrecia's experiments on Marco that she is not to be trusted, and needs to be kept under surveillance. He still loves her, make no mistake, he's simply reached a point wherein he's realized how dangerous she really is. ''' Sephiroth: By Vincent's estimation, this is the man responsible for almost destroying the entire planet for the sake of reaching godhood, razing tiny villages to the ground, killing presidents and guards alike, summoning drifting planets, waking WEAPONs, cutting buildings in half--all started by a psychotic break at discovering that his entire life had been a lie. Or...he will be, if he ever gets home. Fortunately--or unfortunately--this particularly incarnation of Sephiroth comes from a point prior to the aforementioned psychotic break, and as such is still a confident, arrogant, somewhat awkward and sarcastic war hero, and ShinRa's top SOLDIER. Vincent is stunned at Sephiroth's behavior, from his intelligence to his sense of humor, and is having a rather difficult time reconciling the two versions of this man into a cohesive picture. Even worse, Vincent has found himself liking the General, being impressed by his perception and clear-spoken nature. He sees a lot of Lucrecia in him, which hurts, but more than that he's starting to see flashes of himself. And, even with the lack of clarity on the issue of Sephiroth's parentage, that's sincerely disconcerting for the ex-Turk. Fairly recent events have led to Vincent offering full disclosure to Sephiroth, which has in turn led to Sephiroth making the decision that Vincent can be his father. Because Hojo sucks. Vincent...still doesn't really know how he feels about this. Acquaintances Mimmi Kopanski: First person to talk to Vincent on the boat. Fairly normal, but deals with the boat's madness with impressive ease. Good dancer, too. [Positive.] Kimiko Ross: Generally Vincent's opinions of people are in terms of "positive" or "negative." Kimiko, however, he likes. A lot. A lifetime and a half ago, he might have been interested in pursuing a relationship with her. As it stands, he has a bizarre sort of kindred-spirit fascination and affection. [Positive.] Auron: 'Something like a kindred spirit. Maybe. Vincent feels an affinity with Auron that he can't really describe--and the nice thing is, with Auron he doesn't have to. They play off each other well with very little speech involved, and Vincent is actually sincerely comfortable with him. He'd be very upset if Auron disappeared. [''Positive.] 'Kobato Hanato: '''Vincent kind of Ultima'd her at the Halloween party, but he fixed it so that makes it okay. And she thanked him for fixing it, which was a surprise. Vincent is protective of Kobato in spite of just meeting her, and has a respect for her similar to that he has for Mimmi. [''Positive.] 'Lily: '''Seems fairly normal, likes to talk. Reminds him very vaguely of Marlene before Meteorfall. Vincent wishes he could make her feel better about losing her family, but knows there's no fixing that. [''Neutral.] '''Lenny: He's a bird. [No opinion.] Erol: 'Interesting taste in boots, dangerous personality. [''Neutral.] '''Toboe: Young. Defeatist. [Neutral.] Ezekiel Lerish: 'Normal. [''No opinion.] 'Leonardo: '''Intelligent, but has a lot to learn. [''Moderate positive.] 'Anna Two: '''Interesting accent, difficult past. [''No opinion.] '''Marco Devera: Intelligent, introverted, detail-oriented and proactive. Seems to have some kind of intelligence training. Vincent considers him an earth-native Turk, and trusts him as absolutely as anyone else from the department. [Positive.] Renna Moss: Kissed him. Very naive, apparently lacks a self-preservation instinct. Probably not entirely human. [Moderate negative.] Remy Whitecastle: Has inherent magical abilities. Well-informed and intelligent. [Positive.] Ironhide: 'Needs to learn basic logic. [''Neutral.] 'Daxter: '''Did not do the research. [''Neutral.] '''Jinx: A little whiny and a lot dense, but harmless. By initial estimation. His continued determination to hurt and even kill the people around him has left a rather bad taste in Vincent's mouth, especially as Jinx always seems to do it unintentionally. Idiots with luck are the worse kind. [Negative.] Elegante Timeline April 2010 *23 ○ Vincent arrives on the Elegante. with Mimmi, Ed and Lily. *24 ○ This means "thank you." *26 ○ Recon. with cartoon!Link and Lenny. **26.1 ○ Underlaaaaand! *28 ○ Realism versus idealism. **28.1 ○ Cats and birds. May 2010 *01 ○ Not homesick, just curious. *03 ○ Where can I buy a phone a pair of boots?'' with Gippal, cartoon!Link and Erol.'' *06'' ○ The ship is missing. ''with Marco and Mimmi. *10 ○ The best-laid plans of elves and aliens. *11 ○ No one fixed the ship, and having words with Link. with cartoon!Link, Ed and Mimmi. *12 ○ Services offered. *13 ○ Semi-failed recon. with Marco. **13.1 ○ It's just decimal time, yeesh. *14 ○ Team Super-Awesome. *15 ○ Riddles from Nirvana. with Ironhide, Leonardo, Zeke and Ed. *17 ○ Is this supposed to be a conversation? **17.1 ○ Virgins are not the answer. *22 ○ Roy Mustang. *23 ○ Next-gen Turk on the boat. *24 ○ Nobody died. *25 ○ Preferred the graveyard. with Toboe and Jinx. June 2010 *07 ○ Send him BACK. with Veld, Mimmi and Xellos. *08 ○ ...Actually getting a screwdriver. *09 ○ Going to sleep. with Veld, Mimmi, Marco, Sokka and Reno. **09.1 ○ Chaos versus Isabella and Reno. **09.2 ○ APB for a missing Turk.'' with Veld, Mimmi, Marco and Catpaw.'' *10 ○ "You need someone here, Vince." *14 ○ Cleansing. with Veld, Mimmi, Pamela, Phoenix and Edward. *17 ○ Making amends. with Isabella, Naveen, Mimmi, Tanvir and Pamela. *20 ○ What a waste of magic. *25 ○ Goldfish and horse heads. with Mimmi, Veld and Reno. *27 ○ Welcome aboard, Tseng. *28 ○ Coincidental or intentional? with Edward. *29 ○ "Tell me about Nirvana." with Zeke and Veld. **29.1 ○ Who wants to live forever? July 2010 *03 ○ Stupid riddle anyway. **03.1 ○ Helping Mimmi. **03.2 ○ ...Lucrecia? **03.3 ○ Veld, meet Chaos. *06 ○ Apologies to Dr. Crescent.'' with Lucrecia, Veld, Pit and Tseng.'' **06.1 ○ "Lost" versus "hiding." **06.2 ○ Code Black. *07 ○ Something in common. *09 ○ Connections. with Mimmi, Edward, Lucrecia, Kage, Sabriel, Veld, Twig, and Tachikoma. *12 ○ Coming clean. **12.1 ○ "Your charge from Scientific Research has fainted." with Tseng and Edward. *13 ○ Humanity. *19 ○ "Veld is retired." *20 ○ Monsters. **20.1 ○ Science and outer space! *21 ○ Shut up, Ironhide. **21.1 ○ Partner out of the brig. *22 ○ The passage of time. with Mimmi and Tseng. *23 ○ Two steps back. with Marco, Reno, Tseng, and Pamela. **23.1 ○ "I thought you deserved to see your partner again." **23.2 ○ "Tell me he's lying." *24 ○ Moderately drunk. with Mimmi. August 2010 *09 ○ Attempted understanding. **09.1 ○ "With everything you have." *21 ○ New arrivals. with Marco and Jinx. **21.1 ○ Assistance given. **21.2 ○ Doctors are doctors, yeesh. *28 ○ Paper faces on parade. with Reno, Conrad, Mimmi and Veld. **28.1 ○ Dance with me. **28.2 ○ "You look lost." *31 ○ We have normality. with Marco, Veld and Mimmi. September 2010 *04 ○ Ah, to be young again. with Veld. **04.1 ○ Acting Directer Reno. *06 ○ Unaffected. with Sokka, Veld, Mimmi, Attika, Kusanagi, Zuko and Marco. **06.1 ○ Thank god this is only temporary. *08 ○ Well. This is interesting. with Marco. **08.1 ○ Shut up, Ironhide. **08.2 ○ Stay calm. **08.3 ○ ...This is not calm. **08.4 ○ No time for self-pity. *09 ○ Lucrecia? **09.1 ○ Just for a little while. **09.2 ○ Conversation. *13 ○ The appropriate shell. *14 ○ Survey--rejected. *15 ○ Disappearances. with Tallest Purple, Attika, Mikaela, Remy, Reno, Kimiko, Mimmi and Marco. *16 ○ ...Awkward. *18 ○ Hate being right. *19 ○ Something has changed. **19.1 ○ "It's just Veld's room." *20 ○ Sleep is not the answer. **20.1 ○ Hanna Falk Cross. *23 ○ Having words. with Lucrecia. October 2010 *06 ○ Sephiroth. **06.1 ○ "I'll keep an eye on him." with Marco, Reno, Veld, Sephiroth, Lucrecia and Jin. **06.2 ○ Shut UP, Lu. *07 ○ Punishments. *10 ○ Briefing the General. with Sephiroth and Veld. *22 ○ Angry god. with Veld, Sephiroth, Jin and Kimiko. *23 ○ I'm so sorry. with Veld, Sephiroth, Reno and Kimiko. **23.1 ○ "We're part of something greater." *25 ○ Threatening still doesn't work. *27 ○ She's gone. with Sephiroth, Anna and Jinx. *30 ○ Into the breach. *31 ○ Auto-revive. with Doumeki, Kimiko, Sephiroth, Marco, Auron, Kobato and Veld. November 2010 *01 ○ Kicking ass and taking names. **01.1 ○ An offer meant to be refused. **01.2 ○ "Don't listen." **01.3 ○ Godhood isn't really that great. *03 ○ Pick up the pieces. with Sephiroth, Auron, Veld, Reno, Mimmi and Marco. *07 ○ ...You're welcome? *17 ○ Plants with teeth. with Kimiko, Auron, Marco and Sephiroth. *29 ○ Prove yourself. with House, Zee, Doumeki, Marco, Auron, Greed, Nel, Kevas, and Sephiroth. December 2010 *02 ○ Welcome back, Lily. Other *Elegante Plotting Post *How's My Driving? *Final Fantasy Wiki Article *Wikipedia Article *MS Elegante Application *I should have used this for his history link. Category:Characters Category:Active Category:Fandom Category:Final Fantasy Category:Characters Category:Active Category:Fandom Category:Final Fantasy